According to conventional angiographic x-ray imaging, contrast media are used to enhance the contrast of blood-carrying structures within patient anatomy. For example, a contrast medium is introduced into a patient volume (e.g., via intravenous injection) and an x-ray image of the volume is acquired while the medium resides within blood-carrying structures of the volume. In the x-ray image, structures which contain the medium (e.g., veins, arteries, capillaries) appear darker than they would otherwise appear.
Systems are desired for generating images of patient vasculature using reduced amounts of contrast media.